We have been working on ways to improve the piece as a whole. Our actions have been more exaggerated and there is a lot more life in the piece now. In the end, it is heartening to see the group come together to get something done.
Things we could do better:
Group Cohesion.
To record a minutes of meeting.
Use a video camcorder to record our performance for self critique.
Take attendance and be punctual.
A more structured timetable for rehearsals.
Consolidate our ideas better.
The End.
We just had a showcase with the other groups and one word says it all that our performance was rather substandard. We obviously hadnt enough practice or done enough homework on our characters. There have been many factors to our performance but i do hope that over the next 3 weeks leading up to our exam, we would be focused and committed to the project. That means actually doing our assigned tasks be it character analysis or coming up with new ideas.
Things we need to work on:
- Stage Directions : Our stage directions, blocking etc. was “lazy”. This just says 1001 words about how much effort we put into it. That means that for the next 3 weeks, we need to really plot our directions on stage, what exactly we are doing and also how it will help us perform our character well for the chemistry to show.
-Actor Chemistry : It was evident that we were not playing off each other. Too many a time were we just talking to the audience rather than to each other. It was all a bit “static” so to speak.
-Physicality : Our actions were stiff and unnatural, not because it was deliberate but because we failed to get into character. Similar to chemistry, it was all a bit too static.
-Acting in General – There is a definite lack in our getting into character. There was too much of US in the character so to speak. For example, Timmy was not Timmy but Saad trying to be Timmy. We did not see each other as Ruth, Benny or Timmy but more of Steph, Mark and Saad. As such, we need to improve in playing our character by generally relating ourselves with our character. Hold no inhibitions and really feel the emotions that character posseses.
Markyc
Venue: Mark’s Place.
Time: 12 – 3.30pm
Mark’s place was so cool! Although quite far or maybe it was because I was walking in heels.
Saad could not make it because of back injury, therefore we couldn’t meet all our objectives. However, I felt that we still did quite a substantial amount of work because I think we really did all we could 
What we did
1. DV
2. hot seating
3. Character analysis and movement
4. Blocking
5. Plans for the rest of the weeks.
Plans – We couldn’t settle the timetable thing because Saad wasn’t there. But basically we would have:
1. A one-hour meeting – during this meeting, we’ll have development of DV, plans for rehearsal and analysis of lines and the character’s movements. (objective, super-objective, habitual movements based on the character)
2. A 2-3h rehearsal – during the reheasal, we’ll have mark to do warm-ups once he had gone to the physical workshop or we’d have hotseating, we’d also run through lines, finalise blocking, lights, sounds and acting skills.
Sonrisa!
Steph!
What we get from the line analysis and hot seating every week would be put here:)
Ruth :
Mum left the family for the plumber, dad (Benny) became a drunk, Ruth is ashamed of her family and her disease, doesn’t want anyone to find out. She seems like a outgoing person but keeps a lot of secrets even from her best friends or boyfriends. Ruth loves Timmy a lot and would protect him. She thinks Timmy should be proud of a sister like her. Ruth loves him because she can use him, but she knows that’s not the real reason why she loves him, Ruth was ashamed of Timmy at first, but now, she just wants him to win it. “He’s already in the top 5, what shame is done has been done it will only do me more shame if he doesn’t win”, from hot seating. She would like to think that she’s the better one, but she doesn’t know that deep down inside she feels inferior to him. She makes sure she’s with the right people to prove her worth. She’s insecure of her true self, thus is unable to look at people in the eye in fear of revealing her inner demons. This is not intentional but is a habit and a natural occurrence due to her inert nature.
Benedict (Benny the Loon):
He was ostracized in school as a teenager and rarely had authority. Now as the family head, he uses his authority to the max, thus mistreating his children, inflicting upon them the same pains he went through in school. He is actually extremely insecure and cannot face reality. This rubs off on Ruth who is more like her father than she thinks she is. Benedict however, looks people in the eye as a sign of authority and an attempt to put that across. After the loss of his wife, Benedict became even more paranoid about his position as head of the house and that, coupled with his past hurts, results in a highly protective man who at the same time, carries out his revenge on the whole world for ruining his pride and his life. About Ruth, Benedict looks upon her like a reminisce of his wife and of the people who left him out so long ago. For that, he hates her and is always against her. However, he cannot bring himself to rid her of his life as after all, she is his daughter. Timmy to Benedict had always been the favoured one. Yet, due to Benedict’s nature, he still sees Timmy as inferior to him, in the sense that Timmy tends to not do things the “right” way. For once Benedict is proud of Timmy for the science competition and this is shown throughout the play with a straight back and a proud look on his face despite his complaining.
Ruth’s costume. There is no need for shoes because our play is supposed to be in doors.
Will update with the rest as soon as we get them done!
Sonrisa!
Steph!
I have a post on this so that as we go along, we can make changes or additions to this post.
Dim red light
Timmy walks in front of the coffee table and light’s the Candle with a matchstick.
Timmy starts his mono with the lighted candle in front of his face.
Last sentance “My life forever filled with misery….123″
Walks to position at the start of 1 and turns to lookat the scene at ‘3′.
At ‘3′, spotlight in the middle where scene starts from line 164 till end.
Spotlight fades, Timmy lifts the candle to his face again and starts his mono.
He blows it at the end of his mono – Red light fades
Get into position, Floodlights.
Starting positions
Line 10 : Ruth walks back and forth (stage right to left.)
Line 21: Timmy rises, approaches Ruth. (Ruth still walking around)
Line 30: Ruth touches Timmy’s hair (at “spaghetti”)
Line 37: Timmy goes to the window
Line39: Ruth approaches Timmy
Line 41: Ruth snatches the cage.
Line 72: Benedict enters.
After Benedict says ” Oh then you’ve inherited the rabbit droppings i found upstairs.”
park lights dim, red lights fade in, spotlight on Benedict.
Timmy light’s the candle after one line.
He goes back to position: park lights on, music fades in.
End of play: park lights Dim, goes completely off when Timmy blows candle off with an impactful silence.
Directorial Vision
What
Message of the play: Tillie’s monologue.
The Past: The seeds were exposed to various degrees…of gamma rays from the radiation sources in Oak Ridge. Mr. Goodman helped me pay for the seeds. Their growth was plotted against…time.
The present: The seeds which received little radiation have grown to plants which are normal in appearance. The seeds which received moderate radiation gave rise to mutations such as double bloom, giant stems and variegated leaves. The seeds closest to the gamma source were killed or yielded dwarf plants. – family self destructing because of the negative energy from Benedict.
The Future; After radiation is better understood the day will come when the power of the exploding atoms will change the whole world we know. Some of the mutations will be good ones- wonderful things beyond our dreams – and I believe, this with all my heart, that one day mankind will thank god for the strange and beautiful energy of the atoms.
Last monologue: “….every atom in me, in everybody, has come from the sun….atoms of our hands, the atoms of our hearts…” à shows that we are all atoms radiating off each other, negative energy bouncing off each other hurting one another. Benedict is the source of the negative energy- Ruth response back negatively.
The overall feel of the play -:
There’s a lack of love between the members of the family due to Benedict’s negative energy, causing the lack of trust between ‘em. This in fact, reflects a society in which there is a presence of miscommunication and misunderstanding where people do not go the extra mile to understand each other. On the other hand, there is a semblence of hope in the story in the form of “Tille” who is optimistic despite of troubles, believing that things will turn out for the better. Being the peacemaker in the family, she continues to hope that one day her family would be able to communicate and show love to each other.
To whom
Target audience
Target audience – Families with young adults as children. Why so?
How and Why
How we are going to make our audiences be affected by the play, emotionally and psychologically:
I have a post on this so that as we go along, we can make changes or additions to this post.
Rabbit Cage – Saad
Timmy’s cue card’s – Mark
Timmy’s project and candle – Shopping at Ikea or something!
Flowers – Mark
Yoyo! Today we had our second holiday rehearsal at my place! We got a lot of things done! Although we didn’t do our DV, we had a lot of ideas for the DS. The whole play started to materialise in our minds as everyone chipped in their ideas. Therefore we decided we wouldn’t have a director because everyone’s idea contributed to the whole staging of the play. We also decided to each draft a DV so that by the next rehearsal, we would get the DV done.Although we couldn’t get all our objectives done, we did a lot more then expected for certain objectives and therefore personally, I was very happy with today’s rehearsal, Mark had the same sentiments
These pics of our rehearsal(done with blocking) was taken by Mark’s wonderful mac! The pictures turned out really nice:)
17/03/09
Venue: My place
Time: 2pm -5pm
1. Ruth’s costume
2. Bounce lines.
3. Blocking for Pg 14-15
4. DS for the play
5. Props for Pg 14-15
Next meeting
Venue: Mark’s place (Unless it is unavailable)
Time: 12pm
Objectives:
1. Hot seating
2. DV
3. Timmy’s costume
4. Memorise lines till pg 15
5. Blocking, props, lights, sound done for the whole play
6. Plans for the rest of the weeks.
Sonrisa!
Steph!
P.S. Will post pics from today’s rehearsal when Mark sends them to me haha
Yoyo! Today we had rehearsal at school! Timmy was very late! Ruth will bully him more from now on! hur hur…=P
We did the rough staging for props and the rough movement for the first part of the script. We also bounced lines. Papa brought his apple so we typed part of the script already! The apple was quite cool with its shortcuts. Papa said he’d type the rest of the script for us! yay! We’d also help edit a bit too. We already edited my monologues. Timmy agreed to bring his rabbit cage.
After that, being good students, we studied math! We couldn’t practice much today but will practice longer tomorrow.
Venue: My place
Time: Everybody should reach by 3
Objectives: DV, Ruth’s costume, Hot seating, bounce lines at least 10 times over, get at least the first half of the play done – as in find props, blocking, lines, tone, hopefully some creative use of lighting.
Sonrisa!
Ruth!
P.S. We agreed to meet as much as possible so we had rehearsal today too instead of tues and thurs only. 
On Wednesday we met late, however, we got the basic things done.
1. Meet on Tues and Thurs, 12pm at my place.
2. Ruth and Benedict’s character, walking and talking styles.
3. Use of flashback in script.
4. Mark very graciously agreed to type out the script. (I volunteer to help edit!)
5. As we were bouncing lines, we realised the props needed and the “female things” for the original female character that could be changed for a male character.
6. Saad gave us excercises for our vocals.
7. We would have a part (maybe at the starting of the flashback) where Saad would do a monologue.
If I missed anything out, please add on!
Sonrisa!
Steph!
